The Ming army suddenly invaded and surrounded Shouchun, which frightened Yuan Shu in Shouchun City. He never expected that Zhu Yuanzhang would arrive so quickly and did not even give him a chance to dispatch his troops.
Today, there are only 10,000 defenders in Shouchun City, and nearly half of them are old and weak, but there are 80,000 Ming troops outside the city who are like wolves and tigers, and the leader is Zhu Yuanzhang himself. The Henan Army has reached the edge of life and death crisis
Already.
With only 10,000 defenders in Shouchun City, under the fierce attack of 80,000 Ming troops, they can only hold on for half a month at most. If there are no reinforcements by then, the city will be destroyed and the country will be destroyed.
But will there be reinforcements in half a month?
The senior leaders of the Henan Army, including Yuan Shu, knew that it was impossible.
Although there are still 70,000 Yu troops on Lian Po's side, they are blocked by Zhao Kuangyin's 100,000 troops and are unable to come to rescue Shouchun. Once they retreat, Zhao troops will definitely press forward, and there may even be an entire army.
The risk of annihilation.
If Lian Po's 70,000-strong army suffers too many casualties, then Yuan Shu will really have no hope at all.
Therefore, before Lian Po completely defeated the Song army or reached an agreement with Zhao Kuangyin, Lian Po's army might not be reliable, and Yuan Shu could only turn his attention to other surrounding princes.
Sun Jian and Qin Hao are both sworn enemies of Yuan Shu. It would be good if they don't add insult to injury. They will never send troops to help Yuan Shu.
Huang Zu's strength was too weak. Even if reinforcements were sent, they would be of little use.
Although the relationship between Cao Cao and Yuan Shu is relatively good, it only lies in the business relationship. It is undoubtedly extremely difficult to get him to send troops, but currently only Cao Cao has the possibility.
After all, Yuan Shu was once a great prince, so it was naturally impossible to capture him without mercy. Although his own abilities were not good, he still had many capable people under his command.
At the suggestion of military advisor Yan Xiang, Yuan Shu organized the people in the city to actively defend the city, and at the same time sent envoys to Yanzhou to seek help. At the same time, he sent envoys to the Song camp to negotiate with Zhao Kuangyin.
It has to be said that Yan Xiang's vision is really accurate. He saw the essence of the Henan Army's crisis at a glance and came up with a strategy to solve it.
As long as one of the two groups of envoys sent by Yuan Shu can succeed, the crisis in Shouchun City will be resolved. However, these will also take time, and this is undoubtedly the most difficult time for Yuan Shu.
Cao Cao was a tycoon of his generation, and Zhao Kuangyin was the founding emperor of the country. Naturally, he did not want to see Zhu Yuanzhang continue to grow.
After seeing Yuan Shu's envoy, Cao Cao agreed to send troops to rescue Yuan Shu without much thought. However, in order not to affect the development of Yanzhou, he only sent 30,000 elite troops. Although it was not much, it was a timely help to Yuan Shu.
As for Zhao Kuangyin, he didn't even see Yuan Shu's envoy, so he began to actively contact Lian Po, expressing his willingness to get out of the way and let Lian Po return to Shouchun.
Lian Po was skeptical about Zhao Kuangyin's proactive overtures. After all, in his eyes, Zhao Kuangyin was not very good at fighting, but he was very good at various conspiracies.
When it came to the art of war, Lian Po felt that even two Zhao Kuangyin could not compare with him, but when it came to intrigues, even ten of himself could not compare with Zhao Kuangyin.
I think Lian Po had already forced Zhao Kuangyin into a desperate situation. However, Zhao Kuangyin used a backhanded plan to cause Yuan Shu of the Henan Army to doubt the general and change his general before the battle. Instead, he returned in a disastrous defeat.
Lian Po was really afraid of being plotted by Zhao Kuangyin. Without being able to confirm whether the other party was sincere or fake, he naturally did not dare to believe Zhao Kuangyin easily. After all, what if Zhao Kuangyin chased him after he withdrew his troops?
The whole army was annihilated, and the Yu army had no hope.
Lian Po's caution drove Zhao Kuangyin crazy. He didn't want Zhu Yuanzhang to benefit from it. He really wanted to let Lian Po go. After all, if Lian Po didn't leave, the two Huai granaries would really be lost.
Zhu Yuanzhang died.
Zhao Kuangyin took the initiative to withdraw thirty miles to show his sincerity. When Lian Po saw this, he believed it and immediately led his army back to aid Shouchun.
Cao Cao sent reinforcements, and Lian Po also returned reinforcements. Yuan Shu's two envoys were both successful. It stands to reason that the crisis of the Henan Army has been resolved, but the result was exactly the opposite.
At the last moment of this life-and-death race, Yuan Shu unexpectedly slipped up again.
Yuan Shu originally thought that with the help of 10,000 defenders and 200,000 people in the city, there would be no problem in holding on until reinforcements arrived. However, Yuan Shu overestimated himself and underestimated Zhu Yuanzhang.
Most of the warworthy generals of the Henan Army were in Lian Po's army. There was only one Ji Ling left in Shouchun City, but the Ming Army outside the city was crowded with famous generals.
In order to be able to fight against Jianghuai, Zhu Yuanzhang brought over 80% of the elites among the generals, and even more elites from the 80,000-strong army. The overall combat effectiveness of the army was much higher than that of the Henan Army.
After trying to persuade him to surrender to no avail, Zhu Yuanzhang decisively personally directed the siege, and powerful generals such as Luo Shixin, Xue Ju, and Xue Rengao all participated.
In just one day of defending the city, the Yu army lost 3,000 defenders, while the Ming army only lost just over 3,000. The offensive and defensive casualty ratio reached a shocking one to one. If the battle continued at this casualty ratio,
Shouchun City could not hold out until reinforcements arrived.
It only took Zhu Yuanzhang one day to completely crush Yuan Shu's hopes. The situation did not get better the next day. The casualties of the Yu army became even greater. This also plunged the entire Shouchun City into deep trouble.
in despair.
It was hopeless to defend the city, and equally hopeless to break out of the siege. Stimulated by the huge casualties, the surrender faction of the Henan Army quickly became active.
Yuan Shu was not a determined person. After repeated persuasion by the surrender faction, he could not help but plan to surrender. However, he was unwilling to surrender, so he took the initiative to send envoys to seek peace.
Yuan Shuxian's move to seek peace also made Zhu Yuanzhang realize that Yuan Shu was on the verge of collapse. As long as he worked harder, he might not be able to force Yuan Shu to surrender.
So Zhu Yuanzhang sent Zhu Yunwen as an envoy to the city to persuade Yuan Shu to surrender, and gave Yuan Shu a deadline. If he did not open the city and surrender within three days, the nine clans of the Yuan family would be killed.
At this time, the tougher Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude was, the more fearful he was to Yuan Shu.
Sure enough, under the persuasion of Zhu Yunwen and the capitulation faction, as well as the coercion of Zhu Yuanzhang, Yuan Shu could not resist the pressure and decided to take the initiative to open the city and beg for surrender to Zhu Yuanzhang.
Yuan Shu's decision was opposed by many loyal ministers, but Yuan Shu, who was completely frightened and frightened, still ignored even the advice of military advisor Yan Xiang. In his opinion, Shouchun City was completely hopeless.
But what Yuan Shu didn't expect was that just three days after he opened the city and surrendered, Lian Po came back with his army, which made Yuan Shu regret that his intestines were almost green.
Yuan Shu originally thought that Lian Po would not come back for ten days, but Lian Po got on horseback and whipped him so much earlier, which made Yuan Shu's surrender a complete joke.
Unwilling to lose his power, Yuan Shu planned to launch a rebellion, but Zhu Yuanzhang noticed it in advance.
Under the banner of Yuan Shu, Zhu Yuanzhang promised huge profits and used his family as a threat to win over the top generals of the Henan Army outside the city. At the same time, he took precautions at all levels to prevent Yuan Shu, who had just surrendered, from rebelling.
Yuan Shu also noticed that Zhu Yuanzhang was on guard, so he hurriedly launched a rebellion. However, facing Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been on guard for a long time, Yuan Shu had no chance of winning, and eventually died tragically at the hands of Luo Shixin.